4. Money, critics, and the art of noir

Abstract

‘Money, critics, and the art of noir’ explains how the cheapness of B pictures was one reason why sophisticated critics praised them. B-movie noir seemed to fly under the radar of the culture industry, uncontaminated by spectacle and big studio promotion; low economic value sometimes became high artistic value. Until the late 1940s, there was a stable marketplace for low-budget thrillers. By 1955 the B-picture industry that could support a production like Detour had ended, but a few films in the late 1950s prefigured the development of independently produced, low-budget thrillers that would appeal to the emerging market for art-cinema.